Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri praised his team’s all-round performance after the Serie A leaders returned to winning ways at Sassuolo.

Sami Khedira scored midway through the first half, and should have had at least another goal to his name, before Cristiano Ronaldo got his 20th goal of the season with 20 minutes remaining. Substitute Emre Can rounded off the scoring late on.

It was a first win in three matches for Juventus following defeat at Atalanta in the Coppa Italia and the 3-3 home draw with Parma last weekend.

“(Paulo) Dybala did well when he came on, so did Can and (Rodrigo) Bentancur,” Allegri told the club’s official website.

“To play like this, everyone needs to contribute, but we should also compliment the team for how they dealt with the game.”

Sassuolo started well and put Juventus under some early pressure as Allegri’s side struggled to get going and cheaply conceded possession on numerous occasions, before Khedira struck after 23 minutes.

Allegri said: “We had a risk early on that (goalkeeper Wojciech) Szczesny dealt with, but after a quarter of an hour we started to play.

“They were struggling to cope with (Federico) Bernardeschi in the hole – he was playing well and they couldn’t read his passes. We didn’t concede and we created lots of chances.

“Sassuolo’s game is heavily based on their deep-lying midfielder circulating the ball. They’re one of the teams with the most possession in their own half in the league.”

The win saw Juventus open up an 11-point lead at the top of the Serie A standings.

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